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| Christmas Shopping (Photo: Simon Meeds) |
Sorry for keeping it short this time, but you can still listen to most of the songs we sang and the monologues we read (let's be honest) by following the link from "a selection" below.
Have a great Christmas and see you in the New Year.
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)
We are still undecided whether to have a session next week (22 December) , so if you would like to come and sing, play or otherwise perform with us (or be our audience), then please get in touch to say you are coming. Please watch this space for confirmation or cancellation.
Colin started us off, marking the fortieth anniversary of the murder of John Lennon with his song Imagine (John Lennon, Yoko Ono).
I have got carried away with other things today and I do like to get this report out on Tuesday, so I am afraid it will be very brief this week. In fact I will mention only these songs not in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below.
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)
Now we have one week's respite without a theme (on Friday 8th December), before our Christmas session on 15th. We will see how the wind blows before deciding whether we will meet for a final Christmas bash on 22nd, so watch this space closely.
Colin as MC started things off last Friday with Matt McGinn's The hielan' man (*), marking songs new to the Dragon database as usual with an asterisk (*).
Simon for the first time sang a song from the repertoires of our friends Derek B and Rob W: The dowie dens o'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214). And so ended the first, very short rotation of 16 and a half through the evening before the landlady gave us a not-so-subtle hint that it was time to pack up.
Colin's next song was interesting for the casual way he proclaimed that he may have written it, or maybe not. I have been unable to trace it anywhere, so let's assume he wrote The Thistle (* Colin Owen). The song told of that symbol of Scotland, comparing it with England's rose, Wales' daffodil and Ireland's shamrock. It definitely wasn't The shamrock and the thistle (Hamish Henderson, from a trad fragment heard on board an Irish ferry), which Colin has sung before.
I won't quite count Colin's Tommy Linn (roud 294) as a song new to the database since it is a version of Tam Lin, which we heard from Derek B in times past in the form of Old John Wallis. The linked video isn't Tommy Linn, but Tam Linn sung by Steeleye Span, for which Colin had been searching.
Simon had long wanted to sing The twa magicians (roud 1350, child 44), but couldn't get the tune to stick. This time he had a breakthrough, that the verses go tolerably well to the tune of Bonny ship the Diamond (roud 2172), which he also sang - the chorus being sung to approximately the correct tune.
Colin brought another new song to the party in the shape of Morris Blythman's Superintendent Barratt (*), one of several songs about the theft of the Stone of Scone (Scone pronounced "scoon" in this context of course).
Eric Bogle's Glasgow lullaby (*) gave Colin his next "new" song. Running out of songs about Scotland, Simon also drew on the songwriting of originally Scottish Eric Bogle with The band played waltzing matilda before resorting to songs of St Andrew's other patronages:
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)
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| The flag of the historic county of Lancashire |
This Friday's session (1st December) will have an official theme, which will be St Andrew's Day. The actual event falling just one day before on 30th November. Scotland is the obvious direction to go, but bear in mind Andrew's other patronages, which include: Barbados, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, and Prussia; fishermen, fishmongers, rope-makers, textile workers, singers, miners, pregnant women, butchers, farm workers, and the Russian Navy. He is also said to offer protection against sore throats, convulsions, fever, and whooping cough. That should give you plenty to go on.
As always the theme is something to aim for, but it's better to sing off-topic than not to sing at all.
Back to last week's session Colin was MC over a good crowd of nine singers and it was Simon who started things off wholly on topic with Uncle Joe's Mintballs (Mike Harding). Colin also followed the theme with Fivepenny Piece's Ee by gum (* John Meeks, Colin Radcliffe, Eddie Crotty). This latter song was the first of a whole eighteen performances of the evening not previously entered into the Dragon database - though some may have been sung at the club before. These are all marked with an asterisk (*).
Sue and Bob had both penned their own songs earlier in the day, contemplating how much they enjoyed coming to the Dragon, but how cold it could be through the winter. If you're coming to the club around this time of year do wrap up well. Sue's song from this effort was A chilly song (* Sue) which understandably clearly isn't available on YouTube.
Bob sought to warm us up a bit with Fireball Mail (Fred Rose, Floyd Jenkins). Note that "Floyd Jenkins" is a pseudonym for Fred Rose.
Stan reintroduced us to Jim Reeves with Welcome to my world (* Ray Winkler, John Hathcock).
Paul returned us to Lancashire with Old Pendle (* Milton Lambert, Allen Lambert, Ted Edwards) and Denny moved us on to Blackpool with The Lion and Albert (Marriott Edgar).
Stuart and Carrie performing as a duo were asked to sing two songs so they gave us When the levee breaks (* roud 21698 - Kansas Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie) and Rain and snow (* roud 3634).
This brought us to the end of the first rotation. I will list some of the songs that need to be mentioned, but you can listen to most of these and the rest via the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below.
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 9 of whom 9 performed)
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| The original BBC Children in Need Pudsey Bear (1985) |
Again there is no official theme this week (Friday 24th November 2023), but it has been suggested that Lancashire Day which falls on 27th might be a suitable inspiration.
Colin was MC as usual at last week's session, but the first to sing was Chris with To a wild rose (*) which is the first piece from Woodland Sketches, Op. 51 of Edward MacDowell. This was also the first song of the evening not previously in the Dragon database. As usual this doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been sung before at the club. All such songs are marked here with an asterisk (*).
Roger followed on, with help from Chris, singing I'll see you again (* Noël Coward).
Colin was on theme with Teach your children (Graham Nash).
Sue's first of the evening, on theme at least by being in an edition of Singing Together, was Yellow bird (Michel Mauléart Monton, Oswald Durand). Bob followed up with Hawaiiian Blues (Sid Tepper, Roy C Bennett), the first of three songs of the evening from the singing of Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen.
Simon finished off the first rotation with Michelle Shocked's The ballad of Patch Eye and Meg.
Other songs which must be mentioned are:
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 8 of whom 8 performed)
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| Thumper and Vera (Photo: Simon Meeds) |
Back to last week, we had many offerings on or close to the remembrance theme. I won't pick them out for fear of missing some or misidentifying others. You can listen to the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below and make up your own mind. I will however mention those, identified with an asterisk (*), which are new to the Dragon database if not necessarily to the club.
Colin was the MC as usual and started us off with Salonika (roud 10513).Roger's emotional first song, despite being by popular American singer songwriter, Don McLean, was new to most of us with the simple title of 1967 (*). Roger dedicated it to a former police colleague killed in the line of duty.
Chris gave us Pete Seeger's anti-war song, Where have all the flowers gone. It was Joe Hickerson who added to the lyrics to give it a circular theme.
Denny sang one of those old songs where the chorus is several hundred times more well known than the verses, and therefore keeps its light under a bushel until we get there, appropriately in the case of Keep the home fires burning (roud 25763 - Ivor Novello, Lena Guilbert Ford *).
Simon had come prepared with two more anniversaries which he wanted to get out of the way first. He brought the first rotation to a close with The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot), about the ship of that name which sank in Lake Superior on 10th November 1975. His second anniversary was the 80th birthday of Joni Mitchell on 7th November, which he marked by singing her 1969 song Woodstock.
The remaining songs new to the database were:
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)
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| NOBODY LOVES ME 'Nobody loves me. I'm going into the garden to eat worms. Yesterday I ate two smooth ones and one woolly one.' |
Once again I have limited time to complete the blog report for the Dragon Folk Club last week, so pardon me if it is slightly shorter and more terse than usual. Since we are in theme season last week's was Bonfire Night including campfire songs, community songs and anything else vaguely connected. This week's session (10 November 2023) also has a theme which is Remembrance. That could be songs, tunes, poems, stories or whatever on war, anti-war, remembrance, songs used in wartime by soldiers, sailors or airmen, or to keep the spirits up of the civilians back at home. Pretty much anything goes with the usual proviso that it must be acoustic.
Back to last week, I won't single out which songs were or were not on theme. I'll leave that to you to decide. That may be easier if you watch and listen to the videos in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" at the end of the report.
Colin was MC, but he deferred to Neil for the first song which turned out to be Galway shawl (roud 2737) after which it was back to Colin for Oh, how the money rolls in (* roud 10143). The latter was the first song of the evening which was new to the Dragon database. Subsequent such songs are marked with an asterisk (*). They may or may not be new to the club, but most songs sung here since August 2018 are in there - the club has been going since 1969.
Next was Denny with Land of the silver birch (* roud 4550), which is new to the database but definitely not to the club. Paul continued with Here we sit like birds in the wilderness (* roud 19557) - more of that later.
Simon subtly joined the theme with John Denver's Rocky mountain high.
From Bob we got See see rider (* Ma Rainey, Lena Arant) and from Sue Riders in the sky (Stan Jones).
After a light aberration of ordering Rob actually sang between Bob and Sue, but we can bring our record of the first rotation to an end with his own song, Magic on the wind, which in his own words "is distantly related to child 39", which is Tam Lin.
I'll continue with a list of the remaining songs new to the Dragon database:
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 8 of whom 8 performed)
